Jonathan Street, one of Thinktank Commercial Finance’s founders and CEO, opens up about the specialist commercial property lender’s loan and investment performance and why it has a strong appeal to SMSFs. Since settling its first loan in 2006, Thinktank has offered flexible and competitive loans to small business owners and investors, with its first-mortgage loan book now exceeding $1.1 billion. Jonathan, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the finance industry in Australia and the UK, has played a central role developing the business.
YR: Welcome Jonathan. Can you give us the tweeter version of the Thinktank business model?
JS: We specialise in small-ticket commercial loans up to $3 million. The client base is either small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or individual borrowers wanting more personalised financing to buy, refinance or release equity from commercial property. Many borrowers are owner-occupiers looking for a commercial property from which to run their business. Major onshore and offshore institutional banks provide the bulk of our funding at a wholesale level. We have also established two private investment trusts to give sophisticated investors access to property-based fixed-income solutions.
YR: How has the loan book performed since inception?
JS: By any measure, the performance of our loan book has been outstanding. Of the more than $1.8 billion in loans originated since 2006, our losses stand at less than 0.10% – well below the industry average and that of the major banks.